Scottie Barnes Discusses Raptors 'Rebuild' & All-NBA Qualifications

Scottie Barnes will have $45 million on the line next season if he can take another step forward and lead the Toronto Raptors to the playoffs next year

Apr 23, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri presents Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (4) the 2021-22 Rookie of the Year award before game four of the first round for the 2022 NBA playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports / Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Scottie Barnes doesn't want to talk about rebuilding.

It's a word that seems to almost frustrate him. It's a word that connotes losing and for Barnes that simply isn't an option.

"(You) say we’re rebuilding, but I just want to win now," Barnes said just hours after inking a five-year contract extension with the Toronto Raptors. "I'm a winner. I like to compete. So I just want to go out there and win games. I don’t like to lose, and all this rebuild talk, it’s whatever, but I want to go out there and win games."

Barnes has plenty of reason to feel that way too. If he can qualify for an All-NBA team next season his contract will jump from a $224 million max extension to a supermax worth $269 million. That's $45 million on the line for Barnes next season if he can prove he's one of the 15 or so best players in the world.

But Barnes knows there's essentially only one way to earn that kind of respect.

Yes, he'll need to take another jump in his development, but that alone won't be good enough. Of the 15 players who earned All-NBA honors last season, only Stephen Curry and Domantas Sabonis came from non-playoff teams. In both instances, it wasn't their first time on an All-NBA team when it's usually even more difficult to earn respect.

"Everything starts with winning basketball games, you win basketball games, everything else sets itself in place," Barnes said. "It's hard to do all that other stuff if you're not making the playoffs, you’re the eighth seed, doing things like that. That's why I want to be in the top of the league, top of the East standings."

Now consider where the Raptors sit in the conference.

Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Indiana all look significantly better than Toronto. Orlando would have to have to endure a serious step back to fall out of the playoffs after finishing last season as the fifth seed in the conference. Miami is the one playoff team from last season that looks like it could take a step back this season, but it's always hard to bet against the Heat.

That means Toronto is looking at the best-case scenario being a play-in berth, needing an upset or two to sneak into the first round of the playoffs next season. Falling just outside of the playoffs would result in Toronto again landing in the NBA's middle class with a first-round pick toward the back end of the lottery.

The alternative — one Barnes and the Raptors don't seem particularly interested in — would be to tank next season. Barnes isn't going to sign up for that to begin the year, not with so much money on the line. But if Toronto rolls around to the trade deadline hovering around .500 or a little worse, it wouldn't be shocking if Ujiri wondered "Play-in for what?" again and opted to turn the ship around as the organization did in 2020-21. That is, after all, how Toronto landed Barnes in the first place, dropping 10 of its final 11 games that season before jumping up to the No. 4 pick on draft lottery night.

It's a path Toronto is hoping it can avoid next season. If the organization's young core led by Barnes and Immanuel Quickley can take another step forward and the Raptors can stay relatively healthy, Toronto will be too good to compete among the league's worst teams.

Barnes has made it clear he has no appetite for losing. There's little doubt his opinion on that will change as he plays out his new five-year contract in Toronto. While a step back this season may frustrate the organization's All-Star forward in the short term, it could set the Raptors up to be better equipped to contend when Barnes has a little more say in how the organization operates down the road.

How the Raptors elect to navigate Barnes' upcoming contract both next season and into the future will be crucial. There's plenty of time before he hits free agency in 2030, but time in the NBA tends to move very quickly and if the Raptors aren't close to contending in the next few years, Barnes and the Raptors could face some very tough decisions.